Artist Biography: Grace Albee

Raisonne Notes:

    This catalogue raisonne of Grace Arnold Albee’s works was initiated some years ago by her eldest son, P. Frederick Albee, Jr. He started collecting records of her engravings and had early, but unfruitful, discussions on formalizing the effort. However, through his efforts he succeeded in a collaborative effort which resulted in a major exhibition of her works at the National Museum of Women in the Arts from July to November, 1999. After Frederick’s death in 1999, William C. Albee, the artist’s second son decided to continue pursuing the catalogue raisonne work. For several years he gathered additional family archive materials, photographed most of the prints in the Albee family collections, and prepared a digital database of her works. Late in 2007, Heather Albee Michaud, William’s daughter and Grace Albee’s only granddaughter, restarted the work in earnest with the help of her husband Ronald Michaud, and the continued collaboration of her father.

We would like to particularly thank the Childs Gallery of Boston, MA and Roger Howlett for their leadership in providing an electronic catalogue open to all, and also Megan Constantinou for her continued assistance and patience in working with us.

Additionally we are most grateful to the following members of the art community who have significantly assisted our efforts:

Jordana Pomeroy and Shonda Davis of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC
Kit Smyth Basquin and Beatrice Epstein of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Karen Sherry of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
Eric Denker of the National Gallery of Art, DC
LuLen Walker of Georgetown University, DC
Ila Furman of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, DC
Andrew Raftery and Denise Bastien of the Rhode Island School of Design, RI
Barbara Rothermill of Lynchburg College, VA
Janet G. Broske of the University of Delaware, DE
Angel Dean of the Providence Art Club, Providence, RI

The Albee family also wishes to acknowledge research work on Grace Albee's early career by Christina Weyl. While a student at Georgetown University, Ms. Weyl published a thesis entitled "The Professionalization Of An American Woman Printmaker: The Early Career of Grace Albee, 1915-1933". A subsequent article on her research was published in "Print Quarterly XXIV, 2007, Number 2". This work provided us with useful leads on locations of Albee's earliest prints and exhibition records.


    This work is aided tremendously by the fact that Grace Albee was meticulous in keeping records pertaining to her work. Those personal records, the recollections of Albee family members, and family archival materials are the primary sources for the biographical information, descriptions of her typical work processes, and background on specific engravings and archievements contained in her catalogue. We, her family, were so fortunate to have spent significant time with her, watching her work in each of her studios over the years, and celebrating her numerous successes.

    The vast majority of Grace Albee’s work is in the form of wood engravings. She would begin by making a careful pencil sketch of a possible engraving subject. These subjects ranged from city sights with architecture that caught her eye, to peaceful country settings. She also favored flowers, plants, and insects - particularly after she became disabled. Depending on other demands on her time, it was frequently several months and occasionally years before she began the engraving process.

    The second step was to make a tracing of the sketch. This tracing would be taped to the engraving block and then the outlines were re-traced using carbon paper. Next the incising of key outlines was accomplished. She favored using Japanese boxwood blocks because of their excellent density. These blocks were prepared end on to enable the fine cuts necessary to achieve the detail she is known for. Later in her career, Grace Albee made a few engravings using polymethyl methacrylate due to the scarcity of the boxwood she preferred. Ultimately she was not satisfied with the result and began reusing blocks which had been resurfaced after previously having been cancelled.

    Once Grace Albee was satisfied with her work, usually after several trial proofs, and some number of adjustments, she would ink the block and begin the final hand printing process using a burnisher to apply pressure. If working continuously, she could print four to six prints a day. Although most of her works contain edition numbers, many of the editions were never complete. She would produce only enough prints to satisfy entries in exhibitions, gallery requests, gifts to family members, and then would, at some point, destroy the block. Many were burned in her fireplace, and later ones were cancelled by cutting severe strikes through the image and printing a copy of the cancelled block. A number of her cancelled prints are contained in this catalogue. In later years she had blocks sanded down and perhaps cut to a different size in order to reuse the precious wood as it became scarce.

    Over time, Grace Albee varied her practice in signing or authenticating her works. Many early prints were signed Grace Arnold Albee, and later ones were more often signed Grace A. Albee. An interesting practice, particularly during the Paris years (1928-1933) was her use of a chop mark, printed in deep red ink at the lower left corner of her work. Close examination of her mark reveals that it is of her initials, GAA. In some cases her initials, or “g albee” was actually engraved either in the lower left or right corners of her blocks before printing. When Grace became a full member of the National Academy of Art (1946), she began adding “NA” following her signature at the bottom of prints. She was extremely proud of this particular professional achievement.

    This catalogue begins with Grace Albee’s earliest wood engravings and continues through her final engraving in 1980 (at age 90). Following those wood engraving entries are her earliest works, which were linocuts and then wood cuts, for which she is much less recognized. However, they demonstrate the early and rapid development of her artistic skills.

    Comments and/or questions may be directed to ronmich@comcast.net.

The materials contained within this catalogue raisonne may not be reproduced, copied, or transmitted in any format, other than for personal use without specific advance written permission from the owner; and that unauthorized reproduction, duplication, transmission, or commercial exploitation of such copyrighted material may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.